1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to packaging for individual cigarettes and more particularly to step-shaped innerframes for packaging short cigarettes in a hinged lid box and the blanks for forming such step-shaped innerframes.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
It is often desired to package vertically oriented cigarettes which are shorter than a conventional cigarette in a conventionally sized hinged lid box. The circumference of most popular cigarettes is approximately 25 mm and the length is approximately 70 mm for Regular cigarettes, approximately 83 mm for King-Size cigarettes, approximately 98.5 mm for a Super-King Size or 100, and approximately 120 mm for Long or 120 cigarettes. Shorter cigarettes having a conventional circumference and a length of, e.g., over half the currently popular cigarette lengths, e.g., approximately 58 mm, are desirable, e.g., in an electrically powered flavor generating article such as that described in commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/105,346 filed Aug. 10, 1993, which is hereby incorporated by reference. These "short" cigarettes, e.g., twenty short cigarettes arranged in a conventional configuration of, e.g., front and middle rows of seven cigarettes and a back row of six cigarettes, are configured into a bundle conventionally wrapped with a foil or paper. This bundle of short cigarettes requires further packaging in a box or pack, e.g., a so-called hard pack configured as a hinged lid box, for transportation and displaying of product information. Mandatory tax stamping is required on a top or bottom portion of the box. Conventional tax stamping machines are designed to handle conventional length hinged lid boxes and would need to be redesigned to handle the short cigarette bundles contained in correspondingly short boxes.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to permit short cigarette bundles to be taxed-stamped by conventional tax stamping machines designed to handle larger conventional hinged lid boxes.
It is another object of the present invention to provide mechanical strength for short cigarette bundles by permitting them to be packaged in conventional hinged lid boxes.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an insert for use with a conventional hinged lid box that permits a short cigarette bundle to be packaged within the hinged lid box.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a blank for forming an innerframe to permit a short cigarette bundle to be packaged within a conventional hinged lid box.
It is another object of the present invention to improve the disposal of short cigarettes packaged within a conventional hinged lid box.
It is a further object of the present invention to modify a conventional hinged lid box to package a short cigarette bundle.
It is another object of the present invention to accomplish the foregoing objects using a minimum of materials.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention are apparent from the specification and drawings which follow.